Kmart's Ten Deadly Sins: How Incompetence Tainted an American Icon

by Marcia Layton Turner

An insightful look at how Kmart's management destroyed the company
Kmart's Ten Deadly Sins spins an intriguing tale of the missteps of a retail giant who once had the industry in the palm of its hand and foolishly let it all slip away. This engaging book weaves corporate history in with financial analysis and commentary that leaves the reader with a better sense of where Kmart has been and what its potential is for a turnaround. This first in-depth examination of Kmart clearly identifies and discusses the ten missteps and miscalculations Kmart's CEOs have repeatedly made, including resisting investments in technology, brand mismanagement, and haphazard expansion, to name a few. Author Marcia Layton Turner taps many of her vast contacts within the retail business community to get the inside scoop on what really brought this once mighty retail giant to its knees. Kmart's Ten Deadly Sins is written for readers who find themselves wondering how a company with such bright prospects could end up filing for bankruptcy.
Marcia Layton Turner (Rochester, NY) is the bestselling author of The Unofficial Guide to Starting a Small Business and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Starting Your Own Business. With an MBA in corporate strategy and marketing from the University of Michigan, she spent several years with Eastman Kodak in marketing and marketing communications. She is currently a freelance writer/author and ghostwriter for college-level business textbooks. Turner has also written for several top magazines and Web sites.

Genres: Business

256 pages, Hardcover

First published August 4, 2003

Reviews

[Sage Gaska · Rating 4 out of 5]

When this book was published in August 2003, Kmart had 1,503 stores across 49 states and 3 U.S. territories. As of the writing of this review, Kmart has 3 stores across 1 state and 2 territories.

The mission of Ten Deadly Sins is to investigate and explain what went wrong: how did Kmart go from America's second-largest retailer in 1990 to declaring bankruptcy in 2002? Marcia Layton Turner lays out ten reasons why she thinks it happened. Turner touches on issues like brand mismanagement, lack of store maintenance, and a delayed investment in technology. There are some great anecdotes in here – like how Walmart was linking all of their stores via satellite to improve efficiency in the early 1990s while Kmart's CEO was bragging about how he had never used an ATM at the same time. Turner lays out a thorough and well-researched case.

However, the book's biggest drawback is its lack of an insider perspective. Turner has all sorts of commentary from industry consultants, journalists, and professors of business and economics, but you will rarely find comments from someone who actually knew what was going on inside Kmart. The scant information from insiders is sourced from interviews those individuals gave to other publications. Some insight from former company executives and managers would have made this book more compelling to those who did not already have a keen interest in Kmart or the retail business.

That being said, this book was still very informative, and interesting to me, at least. Ten Deadly Sins is one of the very few serious texts written on Kmart, so if you're interested in the chain that went from dominating its sector to being on life support, it may be worth a read.

[Jim · Rating 1 out of 5]

As I write this review, there are, I believe, 3 K-Marts left in the United States, all in the Miami, Florida, area. The very first job I ever held, at the age of 17, during the summer of 1984, was at the now-departed K-Mart in Buena Park, California, located at the corner of La Mirada and Beach Boulevards. Assigned to the stockroom, I made $3.35 an hour--paid biweekly in cash.

And, I find it interesting that, early in the 21st-Century, a book was written detailing the failings of K-Mart. The book is somewhat detailed, but it becomes repetitive early on; one chapter towards the end of the book appears to summarize all of the proceeding ones.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly a thorough look at Kmart up until its first bankruptcy in 2002. Would’ve benefited from interviews from within Kmart. Otherwise, pretty much all of this info you could have gotten with enough googling and reading the news. Would’ve also helped add to the “why,” instead of just “what happened” and speculation.

[Jose · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book is interesting title is uninteresting and I don't care for it. Information is not much and it is repetitive and some of the companies mentioned as success besides Walmart and Target no longer exist or shadow of former selves. Many quotes from armchair "experts" the usual professors and "marketers".

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

K-Mart's rapid descent into a near corporate oblivion has been well captured by Turner in this excellent piece of business analysis. From a falling market share, poor store layout, employee dissatisfaction, customer trust lost, lack of vision in corporate strategy and marketing, as well as no advances in technical innovation for supply chain management led to the failure of the company. Each one of these problems is detailed in clarity with great examples and a wide range of both business and academic sources to supplement Turner's analysis. While there is no one quick fix for K-Mart (and in fact if there is any lesion it is that quick fixes need to stop) there is a clear need for improved strategy and technological integration of the supply chain (especially at the store inventory level). For those who really want a solid business analysis of K-Mart's problems this is an excellent place to start.

[Becky Corwin-Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great insight as to how Kmart went wrong. Brought back lots of memories, both good and bad, of my 17 years working at Kmart.